1) Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates generally to vehicle navigation and position determination systems, apparatuses, and methods, and more particularly, to air vehicle navigation and position determination systems, apparatuses, and methods, using automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) data and traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) data.
2) Description of Related Art
Vehicles, such as air vehicles, in the form of aircraft or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), typically use navigation and position determination systems, apparatuses, and methods to provide information about the position of the air vehicle during flight, and on take-off and landing. Such air vehicles may commonly be equipped with known onboard position sensors, such as inertial reference system (IRS) sensors, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) sensors, including global positioning system (GPS) sensors, and radio position sensors, for example, those using data from DME (distance measuring equipment) and VOR (very high frequency omnidirectional ranging) receivers. Such onboard position sensors may be used to identify an aircraft's position.
However, such known onboard position sensors may be susceptible to operational and reliability issues, such as sensor receivers becoming nonoperational, may be susceptible to disruption, such as loss of sensor signal, and may be susceptible to interference, such as signal jamming. These may occur unintentionally or deliberately, such as due to outside influences. Such operational issues, signal disruption, and signal jamming may result in lost or inaccurate data, in particular, if there are no similar back-up sensors available. Moreover, while GPS systems, which acquire positioning information from satellites, may provide positioning information to an air vehicle almost anywhere, the availability of such satellite-based systems may be limited due to factors such as satellite geometry. In addition, DME and VOR receivers typically require ground stations or ground infrastructure.
Further, when a group of air vehicles, including UAVs, operate in a relatively close range, either to go from one point to another point, or to perform a single task cooperatively, all of the air vehicles in the group typically need to be equipped with known onboard position sensors, such as IRS sensors, GNSS sensors, and radio position sensors, in order to identify the positions of the air vehicles. Equipping and installing such known onboard position sensors into all of the air vehicles in the group may be expensive, time-consuming, and labor intensive.
In addition, air vehicles are commonly equipped with an automatic position broadcast system, such as automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (“ADS-B”) that may broadcast ADS-B information, such as air vehicle identification, position, velocities, and other information to nearby air vehicles. Air vehicles may also be commonly equipped with traffic alert and collision avoidance system (TCAS) for monitoring the airspace around the vehicle and the position of other air vehicles operating nearby the air vehicle. However, known systems, apparatuses, and methods for air vehicle navigation and position determination do not use data from TCAS and ADS-B, such as receiving information, as an independent or alternate air vehicle navigation position solution, or as a complementary air vehicle navigation solution for integration with known onboard position sensors.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved system, apparatus, and method for using data from ADS-B and TCAS for determining navigation and position solutions in vehicles, such as air vehicles, and that provide advantages over known air vehicle navigation and position systems, apparatuses, and methods.